HOWARD PORTER Named New JUSTICE LEAGUE 3000 Artist, Debut Bumped to December

Times, they are a changin’. It seems in the year 3000 it changes even faster.

Thursday artist Kevin Maguire announced via Twitter that he had been unexpectedly “fired” from Justice League 3000, the upcoming ongoing series reteaming him with former collaborators Keith Giffen and JM DeMatteis set in the 31st Century.

And while declining to comment on the reason for the change, DC has revealed exclusively to Newsarama that former JLA artist Howard Porter will be the series’ new artist, and its debut has been bumped from October to December 2013.

Porter was already working with DC and the co-writers creating concept designs for the series.

“The guy who nailed the character designs on the interior of the book? The guy who teamed with Grant Morrison to make JLA a hit? This is what they call a no-brainer,” series co-writer Keith Giffen said in a exclusive statement to Newsarama. “Welcome aboard Howard. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful collaboration.”

Maguire also later responded to some minor fan outrage with some follow-up info on Facebook:

“After a few confusing hours, I kind of know where things stand and why,” Maguire wrote. “Though I’m still a bit perplexed as to how it got to this point. As for work, I’ve been offered some fun interesting stuff, many of which came from DC, who were very eager to keep me working there, so I’ll be fine on that score, but it would have been great to do another Justice League with Giffen and DeMatteis. Oh,well…onward and upward…”

Look for more on the new profile of Justice League 3000 soon here on Newsarama.